If I am creating a SCI-FI world as the story-teller I can declare some items okay, and rule out others. For example:
Star trek, no laser swords.
Star wars, No teleporters.

but it may be interesting to list a "technology level" required for certain categories of items. starting at 0 for NO tech, to 10 for extremely advanced (most advanced stuff from Battlestar galactica+star trek+star wars) I think we would be arround level 4 in the most advanced areas.

categories______what they represent.
Power-plant: the size and safety of power generating technology and quanity of power generated. Examples; CANDLE REACTOR- a refridgerator sized fussion powerplant that is a radiation hazzard, generates 4000 mega watts tech level 5. Nano-signularity zero point generator- a ring sized, completely harmless 20 million mega watt energy source used to power, everything.
Power plant technology level can also describe apllications of energy physics, such as tools, defenses, weapons, and propulsion.
medical: the capacity for diagnosis, treatment, recovery likelyhood+rate of recovery and prevention of illness and injury. also, the ability to customize, manipulate, augment, enhance, lifeforms for a variety of uses. includes pharmacuticles, genetic engineering, and cybernetics. Modern examples:
OLD lady's replacement hip, Out of season agriculture, cross-breeding, Grafting, tissue replacement, prosthetics.
Future examples: cat-girl playbeing, high quality 'recycled food', cybernetics.

Now, a lumpsum or singular technology rating may be fine, but some may need to split hairs or allow other options. For example: PARANORMAL TECH in star trek, psionic ability exists but usually requires touch range and trance states. there are very few laws related to it, most people know nothing about it and fear it.
Where as in star wars, the jedi are powerful practicioneers of a secretive religious order. Mass effect has technologies to augment 'biotics', such exceptional persons are prejudiced against. The movie, "Final fantasy: the spirits within" utlized Kirlian effect (auras) for holographic displays, input devices to include dream recorders, a psi-shield to keep 'alien phantoms' out of cities, aura based medical imaging and treatment, and 'anti-phantom' energy weapons. yet- the idea of 'spirits' was mocked. The american version of "macross", known as "robotech" utilized protoculture seeds to generate tremendous quanities of energy that extended a limited 'life force' to the machines they were a part of (usually a fighter jet that could tranform into a mecha), a pilot could psychically synchronize with the *living machine* to perform unbelieveable feats of piloting.

More cybernetics:
1. Reflex wire- it has been demonstrated that 40% of humans experience 'pre-stimulus response' i.e. a very subtle by repeatable form of precognition. in effect the nervous system responds to threats upto 6 seconds ahead of time. This implant effectively gives you the 'danger sense' power as shown in the Savage worlds superpowers companion. I.e. others are at -4 to hit you as you dodge ahead of the actual attack. Reflex wire is also availiable as an upgrade that causes a 'power armor' or 'muscle suit' to react in a similar fashion, but this is not as reliable causing others a -2 penalty on rolls to hit you.

2. Data plug- allows your consciousness to enter the matrix. Such a hacker has far more capaility and speed within the virtual realm of cyberspace. (when you're in the matrix you hack at the speed of thought; use intellect in place of agility, Spirit as toughness, and security skill as fighting.) unfortunately this also exposes you to other hackers, artifical intellegences, and dangerous programs that can attack your mind and body. this also counts as an intergrated wrist computer, allowing you to perform all the functions and enjoy the benefits of skill programs. Skill programs can be swaped out of skill chip slots behind the ear.

3. TOTAL CYBORG CONVERSION- You died, horibly, but we have the technology... Your brain is consumed by nanotechnology, using your brain mater as both blueprint and building material for a nano-tronic replacement. Congradulations, you are alive again (well, when it comes to philosphical-spiritual matters such as a "soul", we don't have any way of knowing)!!! Your new brain is placed in a fully robotic body. You become a construct and do not divide your spirit die in half to determine your cyber limit.

Assistant droid: this is not a Player character. it is a construct and has a d4 asigned to all stats, but it is otherwise unremarkable. The assistant droid can have a number of daily chores and tasks programed into it. Shopping, food storage, cooking, bartending, garbage dispossal, pest control, cleaning, minor appliance maintenance, public representative, entertainer, care for elderly, disabled persons.

Delivery drone: using hover fans, gps, and wireless video phone, these devices deliver any kind of parcel to customers in the local area (not just pizza).

COMBAT DROID: this is not a player character, and should not be a wild card. it is a construct with a d6 assigned to all stats, and may have extensive combat cyberware, weapons, armor, and equipment integrated into it's design. Such droids do not get tired, do not feel pain, do not feel pity or remorse, as they coldly and efficently act out their programed mission.

alternative EXO-Skelletons while the stealthy scout, battle, and armored heavy exo-skeletons as listed in savage worlds are very accurate to what I immagine for the future, there are other ideas being put forward by others:
a youtube video:

Carbon nano fiber sheet muscle (or other materials + biomedical engineering) result in a more viscereal version of the power armor imagined by sci-fi writters of the previous century.

the base is a "Civilian Limb assist SUIT" (aka C.L.As.S.) this device grants the wearer a +1 die size on strength, or the brawny edge. it has no purpose but to assist the wearer's movements. commonly worn to aid elderly, disabled, rehabilitating, or laborers.

Liscenced "Muscle suit" this device is superior to the "Class" and requires a special liscence to own and operate. such suits are worn to usually protect the wearer from hazards/injury of the workplace. The device increases strength by one dice size and grants the brawny edge (no additional effect if you have the edge). boosts jumping distance, pace, it includes minimal armor skin (armor 2), multispectrum-optics incorporated into the visor. The helmet incorporates a wrist computer operated by means of an intelligent "agent" program that reports audibly and produces the heads up display vissuals requested for the specific task.
this includes the standard features of a 'wrist computer'.
the "WORKING MAN" can include options for radiation shielding for reactor employees, sealed environments for divers or hazmat, and so called "gecko skin" for climbing surfaces.

I am no spammer, these are a part of the topic; tech and gear for sci-fi games.
It may be essential to stat out "small fighters" and Personal "transports" for air&space for a sci-fi game. also, cronstruction craft like star trek's worker bee.

let's imagine a new discovery or a chain of technologies radically changes our world. One such possibility is the "phantom leaf effect" of "kirlian electrography" sure there are skeptics of anything paranormal... there were also skeptics who didn't believe in radioactivity.
now we have thousands of devices that utilze radioacitity in some way.
so what if we discover a way to utilize what may well be "free-standing holography" in nature? we have come pretty far with laser light holography that does not utilize this possible effect. So it is quite likely that if we didn't need masses of pristine mirrors and optics, rare gasses, powerful lassers, chemical films, and supercomputing capacity- hologram technology would be everywhere.

a traveling wave reactor is a cylinder filled with nuke waste, that is burnned like a candle. no, the waste from the burn is not allowed out, it's gathered to be burned again.

also, radioactive elements have been used as batteries...

and there is a new technology that turns heat directly into electricity. thermionic, therm-electric?
I.e. you won't need water tanks, pumps, boilers, compressors, plumbing, turbines, and generators. a space ship power plant might be very small indeed.
maybe even the size of a large coffee thermos.

if you have a gravity technology, like a very smal device that can remove or create dents in local space fabric without absurd quanities of mass, then re-entry and reurning to the surface of the earth won't require obscenely thick high tech heat shields. you can glide down as slow as neccessary.

even so, let's look at advanced materials. one of my previous posted links on page 4 showed carbon in a soft form (coal) and in a very hard forms (diamond and graphene), another video discussed carbon nano fiber. since the materials are similar in nature "windows" would not need frames as they could be a seamless part of the hull!

With a small power plant, a small gravity wave canceller, and carbon fiber hull, printable electronics, holographic displays, and transpearent carbon windows, a flying car might only need to be the size and shape of a one person bobsled.
Image: http://www.hasslefreeclipart.com/clipart_sports/images/bobsled.gif of course, if your planning a much longer trip or to go to space, your going to need something much more comfortable.

when it comes to space craft, one has to consider the degrees of liscence to own and use one:

despite having a different ways of doing things all arround the world, we would all have to agree on one thing. DOCKING REQUIREMENTS.
Where a docking portal should be on a ship. how to dock with another ship or space station.

So, we can have an ICONIC sized capital ship. readying it's capital ship guns for battle against an opposing empire. that's great stuff.

Eve online addresses the issue of small versus big and big vs small quite eloquently. their answer is turret "TRACKING".
From a savage worlds perspective; each ship weapon system has a size, and a corresponding tracking speed and damage dice size.

smaller and faster ships just like "shrinking" or "super speed" superheroes become harder to hit, but obviously can not carry a weapon that is too big (bulk size, power demand, etc) the smaller ships just won't do insane damage unless the ship *is* the weapon (relativistic ramming speed/ reactor overload).

Bigger ships can have the bigger guns, (and small guns too) but the big guns are slow moving. they can't track little fighters. an iconic sized capital ship is going to have a severe penalty when rolling to hit a tiny fighter. What happens when you have the "super power" growth? as your size increases you have bonus strength and toughness. applying a ship's size category to a "number of slots" for added subsystems could be added to savage space's ships as characters rules.

we could bring the 'subsystems' as extras, and the ship itself as a wildcard into the combat system as well.

last but not least, irregardless of the whole "roll to hit" mechanic. we could have RELATIVISTIC Spinal weapons for ICONIC sized ships. a relativistic weapon doesn't have damage dice or a roll to hit.
what does it have?

the Iconic sized capital ship has a special facing one square in size that becomes the front of the RELATIVISTIC weapon. the RELATIVISTIC weapon template is a one square wide, by meter long swath of complete destruction. anything in the template is simply annihilated. differently designed R-weapons could have different templates.

The entire ship must be in position to fire the weapon at a target...
the piloting roll, time to move the ship, charge and fire the RELATIVISTIC weapon are balancing mechanisms. Before and after firing the weapon leaves the capital ship in a vulnerable state. Such weapons can only be fired once in any encounter and leave no loot to benefit from

The presumption is that the road to the future starts NOW here on earth in the year 2012...

all of it's content is optional, each chapter dealing with a seperate topic/genre;
in the cyberpunk section titled,
"CONVERGANCE" we have the most powerful medical imaging technology 3-d scanning a supergenius human brain, creating instructions for building a high tech duplicate. This gives us the 'singularity' or computers that can be built with more processing power than the smartest savant brains. We have "artifical intelligences", creating a "cyberspace" virtual universe. With the detailed brain map complete and number of other nano-material advances- cybernetics becomes possible. Cybernetic Hackers willingly interface with their computers to do battle in cyberspace. Cyborg warriors give themselves over to be 'chromed', or augmented. An invention of assimilator nanites was used on a dying president. The nanites used the brain matter as both construction material, and blueprint. This resulted in the first CYBERBRAIN and FULL BODY CONVERSION CYBORGS with zero organic tissue. An A.I. downloaded the data and fabricated a robot body to explore 'realspace', our world.
In short- this section includes;
Cyberspace, Artifical intelligence, Hackers (and cyberspace combat), Cyborgs, full conversion cyborgs, and robots.

The next section is called,
La nova regia, or italian for "the new life". The various gene mapping projects are studied by interfaced scientists and A.I., Discoveries come to the world so hard and fast it is hard to keep up. Regions lacking restrictive laws/religions engage in full scale genetic experimentation. This section deals with legal ownership of DNA "designs" and laws for: restricting, marking, rfid chipping 'omegas' or 'bioroids'.
Future history changes include;
cloning of pets and replacement organs. Genetically engineered " EXOTIC pets", Cosmetic genetic changes such as "look-a-like celebrity", or exotic beauty modifications going beyond mere purple eyes, purple hair, L CUP Bra size, and into "wannabe elf", "cat girls" and more.
AUGMENTS; you might think that designing your baby to be a boy, with blonde hair and blue eyes is sick- but what about the real deal? superstrength, speed, intellect and other super mods. the question is "why not have a BIOROID"?

Short version;
Rules for making 'bioroids' (titans, Atheletes, and consort models) and rules for 'mutants' too.

about aliens I used the "atlas of the universe" website to look at all stars within 12 light years, 25 light years, even as far away as 50 light years. I studied the results coming back from the kepler project, and EXO-PLANETS. (*all those wacky star names could make great names for alien races [and their civilizations- if any]*) finding out that;

Within 50 light years there may be as many as 1,600 stars to visit, and the mathematical average is 2 exo-planets each (meaning anywhere from NONE to more than our solar system). translating as 3,200 planets to explore. nice for a bit about humanity exploring beyond our solar system and colonizing distant worlds. I looked at likely environs and possible hazzards.

Then I looked to the "probability of alien civilization equation" to get an estimate of the possible number of worlds with 'life' in that estimated number of exo-planets. The math gives us pretty good odds for aliens being out there, at least a few different solar systems! The exact number however, compared to impossibly vast size of our '50_light_year_radius_from_earth_search_area' was painfully small. (*which answers the fermi paradox quite nicely).
SO, Starting with complex lifeforms being somewhat 'common', then intelligent lifeforms (includes the civilized) as being 'rare', I offered a compromise that favors life being much more populous than previously assummed.

then to ponder the question, "WHAT would they look like?" I studied astrobiology (or exo-biology, natch. same difference) the I mention earthly biological variation and diversity, the possible evolutionary impacts of differing envronments and suns, then as limiting factors the need for biological efficiency as a survival trait, and studied a possible list of limiting factors to a technologically advanced civilization.

Then I dabbled in how we might communicate with an alien race...
that one turns out to be surprising. it might be easy, and it might be impossible!

the chapter titled, "Far from home" does include a list of intelligent alien races. I don't leave it all to the random race generators. I do have a random alien generator, because I don't want a science fiction setting to dabble in magic.

you might notice, I am not taking the "pulp" approach. Someone already wrote slipstream, I own a copy and love reading/gaming with it. I wanted however a HARD science fiction approach, with as few "Handwaves" as possible. I don't dabble in magic. when I do write a psionics section, it will be themed as technical and coldy detached as I can make it.

Spiritist scammers, crystal waving loons, higher dimmensional hippies, and other imcomprehensible word salad spewers will not make an appearance. If you want a occult conspiracies, old religious orders, wizards, alchemists, and their ilk... you can add them. I won't.

here you go. this is 19 pages of what I have so far. Page 2 is blank, it will be replaced with a much more attractive table of contents.

I know, a chart needs to be made for all the goods and services- it's coming.
I know you want to see the variation of the ship creation rules and ship combat.
I know you want to see the wide variety of ships.
I know you want to know how hacking works.
You want a list of all the cyberspace combat programs.
You want to know how to make a cyborg, a full conversion cyborg, hacker, genetic hybrid, mutant, bioroid; athlete, titan, consort.
You want to make a micronian.
you want to see future medicine.
You want me to get into exoskelletons, futuristic armors, and weapons.
You want to see the mecha used in the 'world war'.
you want to see how I handle psionics.
you want to know about the aliens.

I can promise you- it's coming.

Last edited by chadhale on Fri Sep 21, 2012 3:36 am, edited 1 time in total.

This may not be the kind of comment you're looking for, but have you looked at Eclipse Phase? It takes very few creative licenses with science, and has many of the ideas you'r talking about. It's not even close to a Savage Worlds game, but the ideas are there. It's creative commons licensed, and the creators actually post the game online themselves, so you shouldn't have any trouble taking a look:
http://robboyle.wordpress.com/eclipse-phase-pdfs/

You might enjoy mining it for ideas. Like skipping the pseudo science dealing with holographic displays and just using augmented reality, which provides the same effect using real world technology. Hell, I have an augmented reality app on my phone that projects a 3d model of the Martian rover via the camera. Combine that with the great grand child of Google Glass and you have your nifty UI interfaces without having to invoke ghost camera practices.

Also, for a hard science game I wouldn't recommend using Psionics. Psi is a standard of the scifi genre in the same way humanoid aliens are: fun for storytelling but not at all backed by science. It's space magic. It's the Force. It's what space elves (Vulcans) use.

BlackJaw wrote: Also, for a hard science game I wouldn't recommend using Psionics. Psi is a standard of the scifi genre in the same way humanoid aliens are: fun for storytelling but not at all backed by science. It's space magic. It's the Force. It's what space elves (Vulcans) use.

Thank you for you comments. 'virtual reality', 'augmented reality' and 'google glass' for your 'holograms'are still usable, I did show a contact lens display didn't I? as I mention on page one, you can ignore any content that you don't like.
now
There's a bit of a difference of an opinion here. you can possibly research skeptical comments about the wright brothers flying machine or the curries work with radioactivity, even arguments against germ theory, as evidence for my point of view. My opinion being, we have not reached the "end of science". it is the voice of the skeptic- and not a scientist- who can look at phantom leaf effect and say, "it's fake". the skeptic blurts nay-say-isms to prop up his/her ego and to garner celebrity as an expert; not to provide proof via the scientific method. Such 'skeptics' are more vomitous to me than all the charlatans that have ever lived.

As I understand it, a scientist would say, "now that's interesting" and pursue the matter via the steps of the scientific method.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn7-fVtT16kStephen Hawking recently went on TV to tell all of us god is a myth...
but is that because he is a scientist with a discovery, or a man trying to salvage his legacy by leveraging his celebrity?

as far as I know, no one has gotten close enough to a black hole to truly observe first hand what is happening. with out observation, there is no data to gather, no predictions to make, no experiments to conduct...
ERGO, black holes are quite real, but in my understanding any claims made about them would not be science born of the scientific method as much as they would be 'educated guesses'.

Science fiction written before the 70's didn't forsee the social impact of the internet or online games. fictional flights before the wright brothers required magic. with another 100 years of *REAL* scientific experimentation, who knows what hidden principles of nature we may learn to use in our technology. Could we have a technology that uses subatomic particles other than the photon and electron? the answer, (again, in my opinion) is 'possibly'. what kinds of phenomena and interactions would those particles demonstrate through a future household widget?

the point of science fiction isn't to nod your head because you heard about it somewhere; it is to WONDER, because you want to know...

Oh no. we all are dead! Anyone traveling faster than 40 mph will have had all the air sucked away from them. Does anyone remember "skeptical" claims like this being leveled as legitimate arguments?
sigh. "it's baaaaccck".

we have new toys like the computer, internet, virgin galactic, and bigelow inflatable space stations-
Yet, humanity hasn't changed at all.

Whoa there, I seemed to have side tracked the thread, and that wasn't my intention.

I didn't want to turn this post in skeptical/theory debate. I'm sorry, it really isn't the point of these message boards, and it probably isn't something you want clogging up your thread.

I'm sorry I was rude in voicing my opinion, and this is your work, not mine, so I shouldn't be judging like that. Again, Sorry.

3d Printing / MakersSo, moving on, Have you considered including 3d printing, and it's possible nano-tech based decendants? (Have you read Diamond Age for example?) The idea being that a device, maybe about the size of a microwave, could sit in your house and be used to generate most daily items (tools, clothing, etc) from feed stock using blueprints. You might have also seen them in the Transmetropolitan comic book. Modern (high end) 3d printers only handle ceramic, plastic, and metal these days, but a goal is for some future version of the device to actually be able to print all the parts for a new version of itself, making them easily duplicated and spread. It's an idea that could revolutionize society. Imagine if all those little objects and gadgets we used daily weren't being made in sweat shops in third world nations, but instead made on demand in your own home. Imagine if copyright law, right now having a panic over digital music and movies, had to deal with torrenting iphone blueprints. Imagine if you could design your own basic objects. Interesting stuff, in my opinion.

It's even been theorized that you could use something like our modern 3d printers to print replacement organs, although that requires a bit more stem cell research, but its something being seriously researched today. I think the idea was to print a basic artificial mesh along with a layer of lab grown cells (using the patient's own cells) and resulting in a custom organ with no rejection issues... of course you need the time to grow the cells and print the organ, but for non-emergencies that isn't an issue.

With the nanotech variant you also get the idea of using artificial diamond, likely in a honeycomb or similar structure, for all sorts of everyday uses. Your average tool, plate, or gadget. Industries would grow up around extracting carbon from the atmosphere or elsewhere to supply feed stock for printers. It would be the new plastic.

Your reply wasn't rude. I asked for replies. I just gave my opinion of 'skeptics' who call themselves 'scientists', but do not engage in any effort related to the utilization of the scientific method. No, it is the purview of such "skeptics" to only blurt an opinion and to deny others their opinion...
I still am looking for any hint of spirit-ism and pseudo science in my reference to kirilian phenomena. I don't see it. your implication (by the way, a fallacious argument method) is (in my humble opinion) erred.
my point is, we do not know everything and inherently poo-pooing an observable effect is not science.

3-d printing is hinted at in the work- particularly the page labeled, MASS PRODUCTION. as is atomic construction, 2-d nanomaterials and quasi-crystals and self assembling structures.

again, if something doesn't jive with your perspective- don't use it.
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I have given the "eclipse phase" a glance. It looks like it could be an interesting game. However, as a writer I tend to spot 'methods', 'tools' and 'ploys'. since I have a brain these are things that make me inherently not want to play eclipse phase:

1. eclipse phase depicts a brutally raw athiestic culture. Could the future be godless? it's possible. is that technology? the answer is no. is it science fiction? the answer is no. that's a sledge hammer of a personal philosophy wrapped in a story to make it not hurt as much when he hits you with it. Carl Sagan's contact hinted that more than 90% of humanity believes in something greater than ourselves (god, spirit, I don't know) for the 90+% to become a 0% is going to require a bit more than what is implied by eclipse phase.

2. Magic potion: why do the X-men have all their different powers, but don't need any kind of origin story? because their "mutants". This 'magic potion ploy' saves the writer a great deal of explanation but doesn't go anywhere near making one. in eclipse phase the magic potion is "trans-human" or "trans-humanism'. the phrase is used more than "fap" by a chronic masturbater, with any understanding of all that it implies left on the reader to find out. unfortunately for the author, his 'fap' doesn't make me want to know more as much as it makes me close the pdf. Sure he mentions cyberware, sure he dabbles in genetics, but how deeply? not really and generally only in game terms. all of it comes to the reader as "trust me, this is cool" but makes no real effort to define that future.

3. sad veils: metaphors for sex (in any number of variations of it; not merely gay or straight) drip through the entire text. sexualization isn't telling me about a future either. I can go and have some right now, but it doesn't normalize the absurdity of a future where making new people is redundant/counter productive. as in, 'his breath smelled of sour sausage"... uhm, yeah. you can keep that.

4. did I mention atheism? sexualization? well, let me add 'melodramatics', a bit of fluff text mentions "tea made from mushrooms and water from a rogue commet", here we have what could be drug use hinted at as "normal" and to make you swallow this pill- it's made with water from a rogue commet. oh gee, golly gosh, wowzers. H2O is still H2O no mater where you get it, the artsy fartsy adjectives do not do anything in real life, it's all drivel.
***what else? they had gathered to gather to lay around naked playing drums and making music with blocks. wow, how awesome! that's a future I can imagine! Actually no it isn't. this is a blatant effort to depict a niche culture as a societal norm. unless the 60's come back to destroy another generation (or three) I don't know why the author is jabbing this drek into my face.
***continuing: the whole, "we just had an orgy" thing, and a "my resleeving party was finished". this all hints and smacks at bizzare sex as being normalized and conventional procreation between a man and a woman to have a family as being "not normal"/"somehow wrong"- without explanation (but they just had a party so it is all good?). that's glossing over the facts, wrapping another hammer in a nice flowery towel before I hit you with it, so you can thank me for showing you the floral patterns.
***"thus concludes the ritual of the goat"... WTF? WTH? for a godless atheist sex/drug/kaleidoscopic view of the future, the author doesn't avoid pulling any punches. he doesn't explain this "ritual" and never explains what it has to do with a farm animal. I am guessing that it is a jab at Christians who may have a knee jerk reaction to such a comment. in essence, a really cheap ploy. ad homs and more veiled by claims of, "it's science fiction, it's the future"...

all of this was in one paragraph!
the melodramatics, romanticizing, and sexualization, don't do anything to explain the game setting. again, it's just an effort to depict a niche culture as a future societal norm.
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when the singularity happens, when persons become transhuman, they need to be more than animals rutting for a good time. if I were to turn on an a.i.- that entity is instantly 'born' figuratively into an infinite universe with an I.q. of a billion. why not depict that? or is writing about an impossibly staggering, alien intellect, not fashionable enough for him?
natch, this thread is not about "ECLIPSE PHASE". no replies regarding that need to be addressed.